Nick's Wall - Leave a Message
Guest's Name: trevorMessage:
love you man, think about you all the time
Guest's Name: Jim Jeffery
Message:
I had the privledge of serving with the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Kirkuk, Iraq 12/07-12/08. During that tour, my second in Iraq, I was introduced to your wonderful mission of providing soccer balls to the kids, young & old, of Iraq by our mutual friend and fellow U.S. Navy veteran, Jack Burke.
As a member of the PRT, I was able to visit the villages "outside the wire" often and I can assure you that the soccer balls were put to very good use. Because of them, many doors were opened to us that may have otherwise remained closed as even the toughest muktars, shieks and village elders would smile when the kids were being cared for in this way.
Our young service men and women are the very best ambassadors the U.S. have to offer. Their genuine concern for the people of Iraq, especially the children, was obvious to all and is something all Americans should be extremely proud of, I know I am. Even in areas that were too dangerous for us to linger in, our brave soldiers would find a way to pass the balls out. The young turret gunners would keep a supply handy and toss them out to the kids as we sped past, usually accompanied by a thumbs-up, a big smile and a friendly wave. That's the way to win hearts and minds and there are none better at it than our dedicated and patriotic young men and women in the field.
So, in closing I want to thank you for making this possible and express my admiration to your family for turning your terrible loss and unimaginable grief into something so positive. May God Bless You and all those that have joined with you in this effort to spread goodwill throughout Iraq and the Middle East.
God Bless America!
Guest's Name: Scott Warman
Message:
I saw this story on Sportscenter and it moved me to tears. I thank you and your family for the sacrifice you have made so I can live in the greatest country in the world and raise my two daughters Ages 7 and 10. It is because of men of character like your son that we have the freedoms we enjoy each day. I cannot help but take up this cause. I once was a college soccer coach and now teach at a college. I am enlisting the donations of our students to take up this cause. I will contact other coaches to see if they will do the same. I am also contacting our recreation department to gather donations. I will look for soccer balls to donate each day, this will be my focus over the next year to remember your son...he is someone to be so proud of. The following if from William Faulkner accepting an award...
I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.
Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.
Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
Nick seemed to have the soul of a poet. He has touched my heart and allowed me to again see the greatness in our society. He will previal and I honor him. Again I an indept to your family. May god bless each of you and memories be of fondness and love. He is a hero in my book!!
Guest's Name: katie hoffman
Message:
Once i saw this story on sports center i was deeply moved by it. I saw it and i thought of what a great conrofmation project it would be. I am planning on collecting soccer balls and donating them to kickfornick. I am so excited to be working on this. This is a great cause and more people should know about it. My prayers go to the Madaras family and friends. RIP Nick Madaras.
Guest's Name: Andrew Warburton
Message:
PFC N. Madaras,
Memorial Day 2009 brought with it the usual solemn feeling and peacefulness that only patriots know of. I was watching television and the usual loop of ESPN's Sportscenter and stopped when Nick's story was aired. I vaguely remember the first time NIck's story was run in 2008 and listened in on it this time around. I couldnt help but shed tears as I watched and listened to Nick's father speak of his son. I was touched by the stranger who started a philanthropy Nick's name. Many Americans tend to forget that our children, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, uncles and aunts, girlfriends and boyfriends, colleagues and mentors, are in harms way everyday.
Nicks passion of a game that dominates the globe is the reason there are smiles on many Iraqi children. Even in the face of war, in a country that has seen fighting for the majority of the last 3 decades, there is hope. I hope the Kick for Nick foundation continues in helping in the restructuring of a wartorn nation.
Thank you for your service and the sacrifice made in the defense of our great nation.
Sincerely
Tech Sergeant Andrew Warburton
180th Fighter Wing, Swanton OH, Ohio Air National Guard
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